crier
Americannoun
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a person who cries.
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a court or town official who makes public announcements.
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a hawker.
noun
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a person or animal that cries
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(formerly) an official who made public announcements, esp in a town or court
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a person who shouts advertisements about the goods he is selling
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of crier
1250–1300; Middle English criere < Old French. See cry, -er 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The ignoble battle ends when a neighbor, Mrs. Prothero, shouts that her house is on fire, “announcing ruin like a town crier in Pompeii.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025
She also told one poor CBB housemate who was getting on her nerves: "You'd make a great town crier!"
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2025
He continued dance-walking down the long city block, the time-traveling Black town crier was waking up all those who would listen.
From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2025
Early SigAlerts had rather a small-town feel, like a town crier.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2024
The crier soon came, leading that man of song whom the Muse cherished; by her gift he knew the good of life, and evil—for she who lent him sweetness made him blind.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
Instead of caroling and ringing church bells, the most prominent sounds on Christmastide were now town criers calling: "No Christmas! No Christmas!"
From Salon ● Dec. 24, 2024
Fox News: It’s been said you and June Allyson were the town criers of MGM.
From Fox News ● Mar. 20, 2021
Meanwhile, the union jack-suited royal obsessives and self-styled town criers have been demanding information for their travel plans to the birth.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 18, 2019
The Times’ Jeffrey Fleishman writes that Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets are the town criers of our petulant, righteous age.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2017
For a person like Lelia, who grew up with hollerers and criers, mine is the worst response.
From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
